"Hey guys, what's up! It's Quentin aka HuskyMUDKIPZ here and today I have a ____ video for you...."
This is how I start almost every single one of my commentaries. I have been playing video games and recording myself in a fpview live commentary/let's play style for about a year now. My youtube channel has been growing at a pretty decent rate, I have almost 45,000 subscribers, and I have been having a lot of fun with it.
Approximately 7 months ago I started getting involved in the starcraft 2 community in a very minor way, commentating random games/streaming myself/getting involved in some actual commentating gigs both live and online. I have had a generally positive reception, I try to be strong in my opinions and I try my hardest to explain my reasoning when I make a statement like "This region of the map is good for protoss to hold for now, this is because...". I can also get very energetic and end up speaking pretty darn fast during intense battle moments.
This blog is not about my commentating but about my name.
My alias/aka/persona is HuskyMUDKIPZ. This name comes from xbox live. When xbox live had the option to create a new account and receive a free month I was running through accounts. In march I tried to create a new one by the name of MUDKIPZ but it was taken. Xbox live suggested HuskyMUDKIPZ and I decided to roll with it. At this time I was doing Modern warfare 2, like almost any other person who tried to get in to the youtube commentating scene at that time, so I had no idea of the starcraft commentator HuskyStarcraft.
Fast forward to November when I purchased a new computer and starcraft 2.
At this point I did have knowledge of Huskystarcraft but I didn't think I would be commentating sc2 because I was a lowly gold scrub. However at the end of december I started to branch out in to more games. One of the games I wanted to get super involved in was starcraft 2, this was mainly due to the community and entertainment I found through team liquid.
After continually casting/streaming for a few days I found that I was getting more and more and more and MORE comments/pms either asking me if I was HuskyStarcraft or accusing me of being a "copycat". I didn't really take it to seriously at the time because it was more of a hobby for me, something I was just trying for a bit.
Recently I have been trying to get a LOT more involved in the starcraft community, mainly through TL, but I feel like one thing that is really personally holding me back is my name and the constant insult that develops from that.
I am not saying I am the bomb diggity when it comes to commentating, I really enjoy it and I feel like I can provide content that is entertaining and logical at the same time.
It has sadly come to the point where I feel if I want to get more professionally involved I am going to have to change my name. Personally I feel the emphasis is on the MUDKIPZ(note the caps o.o!) in my name, but people cannot see past the little Husky at the front. I really am not sure what to do at this point.
If I change my name, through dropping the Husky or changing it to something else, I am going to have to request a change on almost every single website I use. Twitter, TL, youtube, Gmail, other random forums, skype, a lot of different video games, etc. If I don't request the change then I feel like the ridicule and insult will only get worse as I try to get more evolved in the community.
I understand that you have to have a thick skin, but there is a difference between hearing "lol u r ghey" and having people dismiss you as a commentator because of a word in your name.
I suppose this has evolved in to a whine blog, but I really just do not know what to do.
Regarding HuskyStarcraft. I think he is a great shout casting commentator. I personally do not watch his stuff because I don't enjoy watching that kind of commentating but I think he does a great job bringing new people to the community and providing entertaining commentary for a lot of people every day. I am not trying to insult him in any way.
Also for those interested you can find my youtube channel via http://www.youtube.com/huskymudkipz . I mostly do minecraft and other easy to "let's play" games.